1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to construction toys, construction toy bricks, construction toy blocks, construction toy games, board games, sport board games and American Football board games.
2. Description of the Background Art
According to various history sources, games predate written history and are considered a vital part of humans' social evolution. The competition inherent in participating in, or in playing, games has fascinated people since they realized survival was indeed a competition. This basic premise has evolved over time. In today's society, many every day common events, as well as very peculiar manufactured situations have formed the underlying basis for various games. This is demonstrated by the ever-growing popularity of television game shows, including reality-based game programs.
Historical records show that a board game which appeared similar to checkers was found in the ruins of the city of “Ur” (today's Iraq) and was dated to about 3000 B.C. As we know it today, the game of checkers dates back to 1400 B.C. Other popular board games such a Monopoly® and Scrabble® were brought to the public in the 20th century (1933 and 1948 respectively).
American society's fascination with board games resides, at least in part, on the fact that most successful board games seek to imitate human experience within a fantastic setting. The most commercially successful board games allow the player(s) to step outside of their every day lives into a fantasy world while playing the game. A similar principle controls the fascination of many people with sports, especially professional sports. Sport figures, such as American Football players and their accomplishments in the field, represent to many their own unfulfilled fantasies.
The immense popularity of American Football in the U.S. combined with well known and extensively documented game rules, make it an ideal sport to form the basis of a successful board game. Games that simulate various aspects of American Football are well known and have been disclosed numerous times. Today's technology has allowed a great proliferation of various forms of computerized American Football games playable in personal computers or hand-held devices. Those games, by requiring auxiliary electronics, screens, monitors, batteries, electrical hookups or other devices are not encompassed by this invention, which is concerned with a completely mechanical arrangement with simple magnetic components.
Gonzales U.S. Pat. No. 5,332,215, Charles U.S. Pat. No. 5,451,050, Godwin U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,346 and Conti U.S. Pat. No. 3,888,485 are rather limited examples of the type of American Football board game to which the present invention pertains. None of the examples found while reviewing the prior art involve construction toys.
Many construction toy-based inventions have been disclosed and marketed. The most common variety of construction toys comprises a plurality of brick elements having protrusions and recesses to allow connection with one another. Over the years, multiple variations of this theme have been disclosed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,545,070 by Liu, discloses a construction toy set wherein once connected with each other, block elements can be turned relative to one another by swivel connectors. In another example of the development of construction toy technology, U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,444 by Glickman discloses a block-type construction toy wherein the protrusions and recesses are negatively tapered providing for a tactile sensible snap action which provides a secure assembly.